Alibaba CEO’s AI message raises the bar for BABA stock

Alibaba’s latest earnings report gave investors 2 precise antithetic numbers to digest, and the marketplace appeared much funny successful the 1 tied to artificial intelligence.

The Chinese e-commerce and unreality elephantine reported gross of RMB243.38 billion, oregon $35.28 billion, for the 4th ended March 31, 2026, up 3% from a twelvemonth earlier. Alibaba said gross would person grown 11% connected a like-for-like ground aft excluding gross from the disposed Sun Art and Intime businesses.

That top-line maturation was hardly the standout fig successful the report, particularly with profitability nether pressure. Alibaba reported a nonaccomplishment from operations of RMB848 million, oregon $123 million, compared with income from operations of RMB28.47 cardinal successful the year-ago quarter. Adjusted EBITA fell 84% to RMB5.10 billion, with the institution pointing to spending connected exertion businesses, speedy commerce and idiosyncratic experiences.

Investors, however, appeared consenting to look beyond the near-term net deed due to the fact that Alibaba’s unreality and AI concern gave them a cleaner maturation story.

Alibaba’s AI spending hits profit, but unreality maturation accelerates

Alibaba has been trying to person investors that its artificial quality propulsion tin go a maturation motor alternatively than conscionable different costly tech concern cycle.

CEO Eddie Wu gave that statement much substance successful the latest quarter, saying Alibaba’s full-stack AI investments had moved from incubation to “commercialization astatine scale.” Wu besides pointed to advancement crossed models, unreality infrastructure, and applications, including deeper integration of e-commerce capabilities into the consumer-facing Qwen app.

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The numbers down that connection were harder to disregard than the net pressure. Alibaba’s Cloud Intelligence Group generated gross of RMB41.63 billion, oregon $6.04 billion, up 38% from the aforesaid 4th past year. Revenue from outer customers roseate 40%, driven by nationalist unreality maturation and the expanding adoption of AI-related products.

AI-related merchandise gross reached RMB8.97 cardinal successful the quarter, marking the 11th consecutive 4th of triple-digit year-over-year growth, Alibaba reported. The institution said its unreality concern is onboarding much customers crossed AI and unreality services, including exemplary training, inference, distributed storage, and high-performance networking.

That unreality show gave Alibaba a stronger communicative than the header net figures alone. Cloud Intelligence Group adjusted EBITA roseate 57% to RMB3.80 billion, adjacent arsenic the institution continued spending connected lawsuit maturation and exertion innovation.